But today, however, has lifted my spirits.

I’m asking a lot of my friends to help out at the wedding.  Not only am I saving money but it’s a hell lot more personal and memorable.  I asked my two friends/coworkers/mothertruckin’ rockstars to provide the music for the ceremony.  I asked them to learn the basics of three songs, and was expecting simple rendition of the music.

Nope, that’s what vanilla guitar players do.  Not them, they went for the extra mile.  Richard actually is excited about playing and he showed me the different variations and arrangements he came up with on his own today.

My jaw dropped.  Holy freaking balls.  It was awesome.  It was like angels beaming down a beacon of light.  It was like Fry from Futurama after his 100th cup of coffee.

For the ceremony, the music will be as follows:

Pre-processional:  “Still Alive” by Jonathan Coulton.  It’s pretty, jaunty, and a cheeky tribute to one of our favorite videogames, Portal.

Processional:  “Across the Universe” by The Beatles.  Ah, a classic.  Romantic, sweeping, and a killer intro.  Richard arranged this amazing extended version of this song, and that bit of personalization is just too awesomely special.   Little known fact– the song was first released in No One’s Gonna Change Our World, charity album released in the UK on 12 December 1969 for the benefit of the World Wildlife Fund.  Kinda fitting with our zoo theme, n’est-ce pas?

Recessional:  “Brown Eyed Girl” by Van Morrison.  Yes, I know, it’s corny.  But hey, I’m a huge cheese ball.  Before PJ and I started dating, he told his best friend that he’s going to find a girl with brown eyes and fall in love with her.  At least that’s what he told me.  It could be some pick-up line bullshit but meh, he won me over anyways.

Don’t get the reference? Then watch it here.

Ah, the good ol’ cake dilemma.

PJ, being the “It’s-OK-you-can-take-care-and-plan-wedding-stuff” groom, is actually picky. Not that he has a lot of stuff that he gripes about but there are some things on his list that has to *happen*. And out of all possible wedding things, he’s very particular about the cake.

“In my mind, I just always pictured a clean, white cake and the couple cutting into it. It’s such a strong symbol.” He said that two weeks after we started dating when we were planning our fake stereotype wedding with kung-fu leprechans and a reception with just rice and potatoes.

I think the wedding cake is overrated. It’s only something to look at. I’ve been to plenty of weddings where poor sliced cake corpses are left to fester on sad little plates. But at the same time, being a foodie, I also want the cake to be something delicious that all can enjoy. Wedding cakes go, on average, $600. But of course, we live in a foodie city and high-quality cakes can go for double that amount. Eff that.

Ever since the new swanky San Francisco Centre opened, Patrick and I have been enjoying the gourmet food court quite often. Not just because of the awesome restaurants, but because of what comes after dinner. Ah yes, the Beard Papa’s cream puff. These are so fucking good. The crunchy chou pastry with the right proportional amount of fresh vanilla bean custard inside. Oh jeebus.

And it just dawned upon me that, hey, we should have a whole bunch of those cream puffs as our wedding cake. One cream puff is aroung $1.75, and they do give bulk discounts so it will be less than $175.00 for 100 people. The puffs can all sit on a cake tower. But to fulfill PJ’s dream of having a white cake, I think I’ll get a nice little non-wedding white cake just for PJ and me from somewhere like Petit Patisserie and have it sit on top of the cake tower.

….and as for the cake tower…I don’t know where I would get one from. Ebay, most likely.

It’s understandable that live bands can cost several thousands of dollars.  They’re trained musicians who have honed their craft for years.  Unlike me, who was actually quite good on the piano and violin but gave it up for……um…yeesh, I don’t even remember.  Was it Princeton Review?  Maybe, it was something “Asian.”

On the other end of the entertainment, you have the event DJ.  To me, the event DJ is just some dude or chick who plays CDs and “improvises.”  (Note that those were cynical air quotes).

Not a lot of people dancing = Baby Got Back.

A bunch of drunk tweens = Living on a Prayer.

Easy enough.

So we’re opting for one of those iPod Weddings.  The Zoo’s event manager said that they do it for receptions all the time and that it was basically an audio line-out that you plug into your iPod.  This way, we can have all the songs we want playing from a playlist.  Oh sure, cast your judgement.  This idea may sound tacky, impersonal, unprofessional, and makeshift to those frou-frou poodle brides.  For us, it’s the perfect way to make the wedding more interactive.  On our future wedding website, we’re reminding people they can make their own Patrick-and-Karen Playlists on their iPods (songs people want to dance to, songs they want to dedicate to us, whatever), and on the day of the wedding, we will plug different people’s iPods at different time slots!  The sense of community and interaction is really brought forth by this rad, rad, rad idea.

(2007 Karen Chu All Rights Reserved)

I love using the Volupia font because it’s very retro and endearing. I paired the curvy font with the architectural light look of Bryant. The look of these fonts together provide a nice contrast that’s casual and classy without looking overly frou-frou like most generic wedding invites. Thanks to my design virtuoso buddy Sander who sent these fonts to me over AIM at work for shits and giggles.
The “k <3 p” logo will be a recurring brand that will be echoed throughout the different types of wedding stationery. I’m also thinking of spray painting the logo onto the Hungry Hungry Hippos centerpieces. The little vector animal graphics I made were inspired by the Playskool Zoo toys that I got from eBay a month ago. Each animal conveys the sense of toy contruction …like how their heads and body parts are movable pieces. Each species also features a set of white mod patterns. The hippos have rounded rectangles on the butts, The lions have claws, and the giraffes have diamonds along their necks.

The color palette has been redefined a lot of times, and I think I finally got it down!

These pages will be attached at the bottom with an eyelet so each page swivels out. This was an idea I got when I was reading about house-painting in a reference book at Border’s. I really like how paint samples look: so pretty, portable, and cheery

Imagine these babies, spray painted in a solid mod color…so rad.  This goes so perfectly with our toy zoo theme, and the real hippos in the SF zoo are a sight to see.  This will also add a nice touch to make the reception more “interactive” and it definitely will evoke a sense of childhood nostalgia with a lot of people.  I’m still worried about the height.  Aren’t centerpieces supposed to be tall?  I think I might have to find a white block pedestal or a box for the Hippos to sit on.

Long live marble-vores!

Yeah…it’s around $35 for a pack of 12 sodas excluding tax and shipping.   And they’re fucking glass bottles of soda…so shipping is going to be insane.  So I’m guessing for 120 sodas, it will cost about $400.  Four hundred buckaroos?  That’s more than twice the cost of my wedding dress.

So there I was… at the intersection between Cheap Ass Boulevard and Shattered Wedding Dream Avenue.  I actually got really upset all of a sudden yesterday because I want to have a rad wedding and I didn’t want to spend a lot of my parents’ money.  And for an artsy type like me, it’s hard to compromise vision.  After stomping around for a little while, I realized that more than anything, it’s just another puzzle I must solve.  And boy do I love me some puzzle action.

After searching around the internet, I found the perfect wedding favor that is cheap, practical, and goes with our toy/zoo theme:

Aw, fuck yeah, Barrel-o-Monkeys keychains!

Since PJ and I are both children at heart….eh, no duh, we both are in the videogame industry…and we both love games.  Not just videogames, but PJ’s been involved in tabletop all his life, and I have this weird thing where I think everything is a puzzle.  So it’s a no-brainer that our wedding has to convey that and the fact that we’re going to have it at the San Francisco Zoo.

We’re basing the theme off of a vintage Playskool Zoo Toy set.  The colors are fresh, the round style is fun and mod, and the whole thing is just so damn cheery and cheeky.  PJ thinks it’s pretty perfect but then again, unlike most men, he has a very large weakspot for cute things.